Color Blind
by CrazyGirl47
Summary: They say love is blind. Too bad Trini isn't. A Trini-centric Five Things fic.
1. Oblivious

_**Color Blind**_

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own what I don't own, including but not limited to Power Rangers.

_Author's Notes:_ This is a little unusual for me, but I've been dying to do something character-driven for a while now and Trini always was my favorite. Like most of my ideas, this one wandered into my head at four in the morning and typed itself up shortly thereafter. It's a Trini-centric five things fic, so each chapter is a different pairing with Trini. It's also pretty much my first posted fic that isn't humor, so _please_ tell me how good or bad I'm doing. It's done in chronological order, with chapter one set shortly before/in the early days of first season MMPR. I'm also working on a five things fic for Adam that will hopefully be posted in the near future.

**Oblivious**

Everyone thinks she's oblivious to the fact that Billy has a crush on her.

After all, that's how it looks, how it's _always_ looked. He's always being bullied, always being mocked, always looking at Trini like she's the coolest thing ever. They see the way he follows her around, the way he hides behind her, the way he looks at her with grateful admiration when she explains his actions and words. They see how pretty she is, how popular she is, how kind she is, and they figure that it's her kindness that allows the skinny geek in overalls and glasses to cling to her. They think she's oblivious to his affection, and it would be funny if it didn't hurt.

Sometimes she marvels at how _wrong_ they are, but maybe it's to be expected. Most people aren't like her. They aren't observant. They can't read people. They don't understand Billy like she does.

It's ironic, really, that everyone thinks she's the oblivious one. When has she ever failed to notice anything? She has always been the first one to notice, to see, to understand. _Billy_ is the oblivious one.

He doesn't get people. He's a scientist, through and through, and he understands facts, figures, data. He doesn't comprehend the fluid and inexact. For all his intelligence, he doesn't have the wisdom Trini does. He doesn't notice the patterns of human behavior. For that matter, few people do.

Trini does. She knows that to Billy, she's a tool. She is someone to help him understand the actions of other people. She takes his words and rephrases them into something the layman can comprehend. She protects him from hazing and bullying and other cruelty. She assists him with his experiments. She's an asset. She's _useful._

They're all useful to Billy in one way or another. Jason teaches him strength and bravery. Zack motivates him and makes him laugh. Kimberly shows him how to be compassionate, how to find the beauty in everything. And Trini explains him to the outside world, and the outside world to him.

She's the only person who's smart enough to understand, not only his scientific creations but _him_ as well. She can understand the physics and the theories involved in building fantastic inventions, but that's secondary to her level of comprehension for the passion inside him, his love of science. She knows why discovery is so thrilling, why his work is important to him. She knows that the mere idea of speaking in layman's terms is appalling to him—he needs to feel special, and he thinks the only thing he has to make him special is his intelligence.

People think he relies upon her, but she knows that isn't true. She's _convenient._ She serves her purpose, but that doesn't mean he couldn't get by without her. He likes having her around to protect him, assist him, translate him. He doesn't worship her, any more than he worships a hammer or a lug wrench.

Trini could never be the oblivious one. She knows there's no love lurking beneath the admiration, respect and friendship. Billy might be complicated, but not to her. Trini has always been able to see right through everyone, and Billy is no exception. Billy is a mystery to everyone _but_ Trini.

Billy doesn't understand why people ostracize or abuse him and he doesn't want to know because, to him, an explanation would make their reasoning valid, make him _worthy_ of their cruelty. Billy doesn't sound like everybody else because, to him, asserting his intelligence with every syllable makes him special, even if does make him weird. Billy doesn't learn to fight because, to him, it's unrefined and unseemly and something for thugs and athletes, not geniuses like him. Billy doesn't try to understand people because, to him, there aren't enough benefits involved in the learning process to make the study worthwhile. Billy doesn't have a crush on Trini because, to him, she's not a girl but a friend and an assistant and a bodyguard and a translator and a million other things far more important to him than love.

Trini would never fail to notice if Billy had feelings for her. She's the one who knows Billy, inside and out. That's how she knows his feelings are solely platonic. That's how she knows he has never once noticed how she feels about him.

Everyone thinks her friendship with Billy is about pity, that she's the popular girl being kind to the pitiful nerd. They don't see how alike she and Billy are. She revels in learning about people, finding out what makes them tick, figuring out how they work; she tinkers with them, their emotions and their drama, the same way Billy tinkers with his inventions. They don't see how much she respects him. She might be able to translate what he says and help with his technological breakthroughs, but he's infinitely smarter than she is and it amazes her. They don't see how much she admires him. She might not be as hung up on trends as some people, but she could never be as careless with her social status as Billy is, could never be as unpopular as he is without trying to change or being concerned about fitting in.

They think Trini doesn't see how much he cares about her, how deeply he feels for her, how hard he wishes for them to be something more. They think she doesn't notice, and it's ironic, really.

Trini's never been the oblivious one.


	2. Warrior

**Warrior**

She didn't offer because she wanted him to ask.

At least that's what she tells herself to ease the pain when he leaves. It allows her to think that maybe he didn't ask because he wanted her to offer. It lets her blame him and herself and she needs that lie, because she can't face the real reason Jason didn't ask her to come with him and leave Switzerland behind.

Jason didn't ask because she belongs here.

Every so often that thought seeps through. Every time Zack knocks her to the mat when they're sparring together, every time she mediates an argument that would have come to blows without her, every time someone gets in her face and she backs down. She belongs here and Jason doesn't and that's why he didn't ask and that's why she was secretly glad he was gone.

She knows why they picked Jason for the Peace Conference. They saw him as a leader, as someone strong and thoughtful and compassionate. Jason seemed like an ideal candidate and in a lot of ways he was—but they missed the fatal flaw that made him entirely unsuitable as a diplomat.

Jason was a warrior.

Part of what made it so easy to fit in at the Peace Conference was the fact that everyone was so different it was hard to be different enough not to blend. Everyone was from somewhere else, everyone had a different accent and a different background and a different view. Everyone blurred together, sharing everything from cuisine to clothing. Customs were swapped like trading cards and conversations were full of Korean slang and Russian curses and words in Hebrew that just sound kind of cool. Hellos were said with kisses and hugs and handshakes and bows and salutes and it was so hard to tell if someone was flinging an insult because that hand gesture might mean something in Italy but a Canadian has no idea what was being implied about his girlfriend. To Zack it was just another party. To Trini it was a place to find other compassionate people trying to make a difference. To Jason it was a nightmare.

Politics and words, strategy and discussion, debate and speeches. Despite his determination, despite his eagerness to help others, despite his skill as a leader, Jason was lost because this wasn't his battlefield. It wasn't a battlefield at all. He belonged on the frontlines, in the trenches, swinging a sword and _fighting._ Trini didn't.

It hurts that he never noticed before Geneva. She knows it shouldn't be a surprise, but it is. He's seen her fight everything from schoolyard bullies to evil monsters and yet he never picked up on the fact that she isn't a warrior. It takes him seeing her in her element to realize the battlefield was never where she belonged.

She thrives at the Peace Conference, gaining respect and allies and enemies, winning battles with words and saving the day with string-pulling and strong-arming. It made her feel alive in a way that morphing never could, and even though she misses it, misses everything that came with it, she can leave it behind and still be happy. Jason can't.

Sometimes she wonders if he knew before and simply pretended he didn't. She gave him clues, plenty of them. Even the first day they met Zordon, Trini walked out and didn't look back as Jason pleaded with them to turn around. Maybe he caught on at some point and ignored it. After all, she ignored it herself.

Her only comfort is that he stayed in Geneva as long as he did, trying to be someone he wasn't. Just as Trini had tried to be a warrior, he tried to be a diplomat. He motivated teams and led discussions and worked hard to save the day in any way he could. There were injustices to fight and people to help and that was something at least. In the end it just wasn't his battlefield.

She entertains the idea of pretending again, of doing what Jason did, of leaving the Conference and running back to Angel Grove, being a warrior again. The thought never lasts long, because she knows it's too late now. It's not because their spots on the team are filled and their coins are gone. It's because Jason knows now. She knew he was a warrior and she knew she wasn't. She could look past that, but she can't look past the fact that it matters to him, that he saw who she was and decided not to ask her to follow him back onto his field. She has every right to be upset that he didn't ask, because he damned well should have been able to ignore it the way she did. It isn't fair to say she didn't offer because she wanted him to ask, though. That's just what she tells herself.

She didn't offer because she belongs here.

* * *

_End Notes:_ This one wasn't something I particularly agreed with; I've always felt that Trini _is_ a warrior, that she's more of a fighter than a peacemaker, and Jason/Trini has always been my preferred ship. I just wanted to explore a few things I don't usually do. I figured since Jason/Trini was a pairing I have always agreed with it might be fun to do a character assessment of Trini I don't agree with as I tried to come up with a way they wouldn't work. Given that this entire fic is an attempt to write things far from my norm, I hope it worked.

_P.S._—Reviews make me tingle.


	3. Alive

**Alive**

Nothing is ever enough for him.

It's not that he isn't satisfied, that he can't be happy or content. He just doesn't like to hold still. He's happy everywhere, with everyone and everything. Zack has a thirst for life, for everything that life has to offer. That's why he could never hold still with her.

Switzerland was a great experience for him. So many different people and cultures and activities, so many different ways to entertain someone like Zack. Every moment was exciting, interesting, or both. He could learn Croatian at the breakfast table, argue against Chinese sweatshops all morning, eat Thai food for lunch, spend his afternoons teaching Egyptian teenagers the finer points of football, go out with a Brazilian girl at night. Plenty of people at the Conference thought Zack would be there until his status as a teenager ended, maybe even stay on as an adult coordinator or involve himself in a similar project, one where the variety would never stop.

Trini knew better. As diverse as the Conference was, its diversity wasn't infinite, and Zack would soon exhaust his options and move on to something else. Dabbling in various cultures for so long only increased his desire to see more of all of them and to find things that he wasn't getting where he was. Too many things were waiting outside Geneva's walls for Zack to linger behind them. He would experience every last bit of the Conference in a way no one else could before rushing off to experience more, dazzling and exploring the world until the world itself ended.

She had wondered, sometimes, if he would ever get tired of dancing through life and want to settle down. Surely someone as wonderful as Zack had a soul mate out there, a perfect match who would be enough in a way nothing else was ever adequate. Surely one day Zack would want a house, a family, something steady and stable and safe.

The longer she watched him devour the variety of the Peace Conference, the more certain she was that Zack could never have that. He would try it, probably, the whole nine-to-five job and a domesticated life, but for Zack it would just be something to try. A curiosity that must be experienced, evaluated, and then reduced to nothing but a fond memory. Zack's perfect girl wasn't the housewife with a baby on one hip and dinner on the table. Zack's ideal life didn't include briefcases, or minivans, or stock portfolios. Zack wanted everything, and if he found a match it would be someone just as determined as he was to have it all and do it all.

Zack dreamed about life that never got boring, where there was no average day and surprise, beauty, adventure, and excitement filled each and every moment… and with Zack, that was absolutely possible. He could find entertainment in the middle of anything. Disaster was just another thing to observe, document and enjoy. Trini suspected that even when death finally caught up to him he would embrace it head-on, smiling in the face of a strange new experience.

Zack didn't want to find a good job and work his way up. Zack didn't want to come home to the same person every night. Zack didn't want his life to revolve around marriage, children and money. If there was a perfect girl out there for him, it was someone as adventurous, versatile, and alive as he was.

It sure as hell wasn't Trini.


	4. Punishment

_**FAIR WARNING:**_** This chapter contains slash, more specifically femslash. Nothing graphic, promise (or apologize, depending upon your viewpoint). **

* * *

**Punishment**

She had tried, over and over again, but the moment she heard his voice she invariably lost her nerve. Every time they spoke over the communicator or on the phone or in person, the sound of his voice stopped her cold. In the end, they both agreed that there was only one way it could happen, one way for the lie to end.

It's still a lie, of course—the masculine pronoun, the implication that it's someone new—but it's less of a lie than the one they've been living, so Trini doesn't argue when Kimberly shows her the final copy of the letter. Trini goes with Kimberly to the post office, and forces herself to watch as Kimberly shoves the letter in the mail slot. In a way, that's her punishment. She doesn't get to turn a blind eye to this, because she caused it, and she couldn't make it go away.

Trini tries not to think about it over the next few days as the letter makes its way towards Tommy, but she can't help herself. She can't stop herself from wishing for some way to take it back. She spends her time dreaming up scenarios that could stop the letter in its tracks. If only it would get lost in the shuffle of the postal delivery system, if only a monster would trample the Angel Grove Post Office during a zord fight, if only Ernie would take up a sudden grudge against Tommy and decide to stop fielding Tommy's mail and mark it return to sender.

It's only three days until the calls start. Four o'clock in the afternoon, Florida time, which means it's only been a half hour since the letter would have arrived at the Angel Grove Gym and Juice Bar.

Kimberly spends the entire day sitting on her bed, hugging her knees to her chest, and watching the caller ID on the phone. She's turned the answering machine off.

The first time, it's Adam. The second time, it's Billy. Adam again. Jason. Rocky. Kat. The Juice Bar, which could be anybody. Adam again. Zack. Billy. Billy. Jason. Adam. Billy. An unfamiliar number with an Angel Grove area code, which could be Tommy but is more likely the number of whatever place they dragged Tommy to cheer him up, because that's what Rangers do in times of crisis. They band together and help each other out.

Tommy doesn't call. Not once.

Maybe it's just some sort of karma. After all, Tommy had been the one to betray them in the beginning. A damaged Alpha, a lost Zordon, a demolished Command Center, a missing Jason, all the work of a fellow Ranger. Or maybe Tommy's just a victim again, because there is no evil spell at work, no glowing flashes of light burning in the eyes. This can't be fought or cured. This just is.

She sits next to Kimberly all day, listening while the phone rings and rings. Kimberly makes no move to shut off the ringer. In a way, this is her punishment, _their_ punishment, for causing Tommy pain. Trini longs to comfort her, to say something soothing or pull her into an embrace, but she can't bring herself to worsen the betrayal by touching Kimberly while their friends call to ask _why._

They both flinch when the familiar tuneful beeps sound from Kimberly's communicator. Kimberly makes no move to activate it. Trini stands and wordlessly begins to gather her things, knowing that sooner or later one of the others will get worried and use the Viewing Globe—or whatever it is they have now in their new fancy Power Chamber—to check and make sure that Kimberly's silence is voluntary.

That night Kimberly doesn't come back to Trini's place for the first time since they started being more than friends, since they added another item to the long list of secrets no one else could know. It's just as well, because Trini isn't home an hour when the calls start coming for her.

Adam is the first to reach her, and her heart breaks for him when he tells her about reading the letter aloud to Tommy in front of the whole team. Tommy's pretty broken up and there's some new evil to fight from the Machine Empire and if truth be told everyone's pretty shaken because this wasn't supposed to happen, because Tommy and Kimberly _belong_ together, and everyone knows it, even Kat, even Skull, even everyone who ever hoped otherwise.

Trini's the one they call for comfort, always has been. She was the gauze for every emotional wound and she can't bring herself to take away their only hope at healing by telling them that she's the reason for their latest affliction. So she does what she can to be their Trini, the one who always knows what to say and how to quiet their fears, the one who can reason through any event and soothe any pain.

She assures Adam that Tommy will be okay, that in some ways it was probably best for him to hear it that way, from a friend in front of friends, because he needed their support at that moment, will need their support for a while yet. She tells Rocky that there isn't much anyone can really actively do for Tommy right now, because when Tommy gets upset he likes to disappear, fade away, work through it on his own and then come back like nothing ever happened. She commiserates with Zack, agrees that if two people as well-suited for each other as Tommy and Kimberly can't make it there isn't much hope for the rest of the world, and she jokes and leaves openings for him to come up with his own puns until there's enough laughter for Zack to regain his footing. She makes Aisha believe that it isn't the distance that ruined things between Tommy and Kimberly, that space isn't enough to make love fade, that even if no one else remembers the timeline where Aisha grew up in Stone Canyon the Rangers will never forget her, will never stop caring about her, and as someone who left almost two years before the time spell Trini's a monument to the fact.

She expected the next call to be Billy, but instead it's Kat, three days later, once the evil-of-the-moment is vanquished and everything's started to really settle again. She barely knows Kat, has only met her twice, but that doesn't stop her from listening to Kat sob about how wretched she feels, about how badly she wants Tommy and how she was secretly glad when it happened, how awful she feels for him, how she tried to set Tommy up and it imploded, how good she felt slow-dancing with him in the Juice Bar. Trini insists that Kat has no reason to feel guilty, that Tommy is free now and it's natural to feel pleased when a boy she likes becomes single, that she never did anything to sabotage their relationship (at least without Rita's influence). She assures her that Kimberly wouldn't fault Kat for moving in, but warns that Tommy is vulnerable now and Kat should probably let _him_ make the first move, and advises that maybe the best way to ease Tommy's heartache is _not_ to set him up with another prominent athlete devoted to her career who travels a lot.

It takes Billy a week to call, and it's Billy at his worst. He shares his secret guilt with her—part of him feels like if he was the one hurting no one would notice, because he's not part of the team anymore, and even though he knows that's not true it sure seems like it sometimes. He hates the fact that for all his intelligence he never managed to outgrow his social awkwardness enough to properly comfort a grieving best friend. He feels a little bitter about the fact that he's trying to help Tommy but kind of feels like Tommy, the only one still in Angel Grove who might know what he was going through, didn't do much to comfort Billy about his power loss, even though he knows it was just too painful for Tommy to reopen an old wound. And part of him even feels angry with Trini, because she isn't there for this, because he can't fill her void when it comes to being a shoulder to cry on, because he has a hard time thinking of something comforting to say in words with five syllables or less and there's no one around to translate, because he isn't as much a part of the team without her there to make him belong, because he wants her to come home and be there for him and for them.

She almost cracks when he tells her how badly he misses her, how much they could use her around right now. She almost tells him that this time she's the reason he needs her, but she can't do that to him, not to Billy. She cares about him too much and she owes him too much and she doesn't deserve to ease the guilt that hurts worse than anything a monster ever threw at her.

The day after Billy calls, Kimberly finally comes to her. Trini doesn't ask how Kimberly's week has gone, if she's talked to the gang at all, if she's spoken to Tommy. Trini doesn't comfort her and doesn't ask for comfort from her. Trini just revels in her lover's return and prays that it will work, that somehow against all odds they'll make it through thick and thin and be together forever.

Yet she knows, deep down, it won't last. They have too many secrets to maintain another one, and this one is different, because they're not protecting themselves from the outside world. They're protecting themselves from the team.

It isn't because they're both women, or because they're different races, or anything so superficial. None of their friends would care, not past the initial shock, that they're an interracial lesbian couple. There would be no real animosity from anyone they hold dear. Whatever damage they might do with their relationship would be fixable in the end, save the damage to the team.

They know that Tommy might forgive Kimberly for leaving and Trini for stealing her away, that Jason and Billy and Zack and the others would be angry at first but come around eventually, but they would never ask Tommy or the others to try and they'll never forgive themselves. Whatever sins they might be committing by being together, being in love, and being lovers, their greatest sin is that of betrayal, and they don't deserve forgiveness for that.

It's two more weeks before Tommy finally calls, at four in the morning, and he's hysterical, sobbing, broken. She leaves Kimberly lying alone in the bed and takes the call in the kitchen, letting him obliviously pour his heart out to the girl who helped break it. Kimberly doesn't wake up, even after the batteries in the cordless die and Trini has to use her communicator and his miserable voice fills the apartment as he releases his grief and anger and frustration and loss.

It takes three hours before he stops ranting long enough for her to do more than murmur soothing noises over the connection, and it's another half hour before he's stopped blowing his nose every few minutes. Finally he's okay again, a little more stable, and now that it's out he can start to heal. Just like when he gave his powers to Jason, just like when his temporary powers fizzled out, just like always. He always comes to her when he's ready to talk, always has. He's always trusted her, and she won't take that from him. She's taken enough.

Tommy knows that she's attending the University of Florida and that she lives in the same town as Kimberly. He knows she sees Kimberly all the time, hangs out with her all the time, is still her best friend. He doesn't ask her why Kimberly left him. He doesn't ask her who stole Kimberly away, doesn't ask Trini to betray Kimberly to him, and Trini doesn't offer.

It's ten forty-five in the morning—seven forty-five, California time—when the conversation ends, and it might have run longer if Tommy didn't have to be at school soon. Trini knows he'll call back a few more times, he'll still draw on her for strength, but for the most part he's done mourning his girlfriend. Tommy's okay now, and it's her doing. For the first time, a person feels better because of her and it doesn't fill her with pride.

Kimberly doesn't get out of bed until noon, and she shows absolutely no signs that she heard a word of Trini's conversation with Tommy. Trini never asks, but sometimes she wonders, because it isn't long before she realizes that Kimberly is also aware of the fact that it isn't going to work out between Trini and Kimberly. Sometimes her smile is a little too sad, sometimes her kisses are a little too desperate, sometimes she clings a little too tight.

They both try to enjoy it while it lasts, because there's nothing else they can do. Tommy's moved on and it's too late, and no matter how much they regret betraying him neither Trini nor Kimberly regrets the fact that it ended. There's no controlling what the heart feels, and they both care about Tommy too much to let Kimberly and Tommy's relationship continue when Kimberly has feelings for someone else.

The calls for comfort continue for a month or two, from Tommy and Billy and Adam, from Kat, Aisha, Rocky and Zack. Tanya's never met either of them and doesn't even know Tommy all that well yet, and Jason doesn't bother. At first, Trini hopes the silence from Jason is because he's dealing on his own, or because he's too busy comforting Tommy, but as time wears on it becomes crystal clear that whether or not he's called Kimberly to discuss the breakup, he's not calling Trini because he's figured it out.

Jason _calls_ her, of course, but never for comfort or questions, never to make sense of what happened. He calls Trini because he's her friend, her teammate, a staple in her life, and that will never change. He has always been a part of her life and he always will be and that won't be altered no matter what happens between her and Kimberly. He avoids mentioning Tommy to her at all. She isn't surprised.

Tommy, Rocky, Adam, Aisha and Kat don't know Kimberly as well as Jason, Billy and Zack. They are good friends, best friends, true friends, but they haven't always been around. They don't know every intimate detail about Trini and Kimberly. Jason, Billy and Zack do, but of the three of them only Jason is that perceptive. Billy and Zack are brothers to the girls, but Jason's always been the _big_ brother, the older brother, the wise one.

It lasts barely six months, and it ends quietly. They'll still be friends, there's no stopping that, but one day it's just time to stop pretending that it'll ever work. Trini leaves Florida just after finals and Kimberly remains, alone, still trying to make it in the world of gymnastics, still trying to fly without a zord.

None of the others notice that anything has happened at all, and they keep it that way. Trini deals with the loss on her own; there is no one to comfort her. Only Jason even suspects their relationship, let alone its end, but even when Jason loses his powers he still somehow doesn't have time to swing by for a visit, not until Trini's already sent out the emails and letters and phone calls with her new address hundreds of miles away. It's only a few days before he makes it to Florida then, and he spends a week hanging with Kimberly. Trini recognizes it for what it is. She isn't the one who left Tommy; she's the one who stole Kimberly away. So when Jason sees that they're over, he chooses to comfort Kimberly.

She thinks of all the times she comforted Jason, from the time in preschool when he lost his first fight, to the time in high school when he first felt like a failed leader, to the time at the Peace Conference when he realized that no amount of diplomacy was ever going to make him feel like half the hero he'd been as a Ranger. She wonders if he still would have chosen Kimberly as the one worthy of comfort if it weren't for the fact that he's Tommy's best friend, that he just spent months back on the team and back at Tommy's side and knows firsthand the void Kimberly left behind. Does he really blame Trini for this mess? Does he really think that if Trini had held her own feelings in check, Kimberly would have hidden hers and stayed with Tommy? Or is he just hoping that now that it's over, he can patch things up the way they were before?

She's pretty sure it's just an attempt to reclaim the past, and when she gets word from the Rangers that Jason and Kimberly have been kidnapped from a beach near Angel Grove she's sure of it. Jason's always had an obsession with trying to glue together broken shards of the past, particularly when it comes to Tommy and the team. She knows Jason well enough to realize that the trip to Angel Grove had nothing to do with helping orphans or having some fun or even cheering Kimberly up after her second in-team breakup. It's Jason's attempt to get Tommy and Kimberly talking again, to put things back like they were.

He never seems to realize that there is no going home again, that being the Gold Ranger won't make up for all the days he spent wearing Red, that no matter how Tommy is a part of the team it'll never be like those first few glorious months when Tommy was still The New Guy, that just because he left Geneva with a plane ticket saying "Destination: Angel Grove" doesn't mean he can go home again. Events and places don't create things like _home_ and _family_ and _power,_ and if Jason knows that he can't accept it.

So Trini sits alone in her apartment, waiting for the communicator to beep with the arrival of updates on the battle from the Zeo Rangers and Alpha, and when the battle's won there's a new team and new powers and Jason isn't a part of it, and Kimberly isn't a part of Tommy, and Jason never comes to comfort the girl who always comforted him.

When Kimberly comes to her soon after, Trini's filled with hope, for just one moment, that maybe Kimberly wants to keep trying, that seeing Tommy again reminded her of why she left Tommy in the first place, but the hope is short lived. Kimberly just needs a friend. Kimberly needs Trini to comfort her about seeing Tommy again, finding out Tommy was with Kat, facing the fact that she's no longer a Ranger, the terror of seeing Jason dangling over a pit of lava, the horror of realizing what she'd done while evil.

It's the first time Trini's seen Kimberly since the break-up. They really are still friends, and this proves it. It should feel good. It should be a relief.

But it still feels like punishment.

* * *

_End Notes:_ Well, this is probably the most surreal thing I've ever done. I don't ship this, but I wanted to go with one specific group of people for this fic, and let's face it, the letter was a hell of an opening. So next (and last) up: Tommy.


	5. Traitor

**Traitor**

The funny thing is? It's all Kimberly's fault.

Trini's been avoiding this meeting for over three years, and Adam's well-aware of it; he keeps shooting apologetic looks at her whenever Kira isn't looking, trying to convey his sympathy, trying to beg for forgiveness. At first Trini had been furious with him for bringing Kira to meet Trini, but the longer Trini talks to Kira, the more Trini's certain that Kira is the sort of person who doesn't take no for an answer. Trini knows he must have put up a fight, must have prayed Trini wouldn't be home when they showed up on her doorstep unannounced. She can forgive him, though—after all, he isn't the traitor.

They'd arrived just after sunset, Kira wide-eyed in amazement, Adam cringing as he explained about being recruited by the Sentinel Knight to lead a group of Rangers from various teams against Thrax, the son of Lord Zedd and Rita Repulsa. He told her about defending the Earth while the Overdrive Rangers' severed ties to the morphing grid were repaired, about Bridge returning to the future in a ball of light and Tori ninja-streaking back to Blue Bay Harbor and Adam offering to give Xander and Kira a lift back to their respective cities. He made it sound, under a cover of euphemisms, as if Kira had simply refused to get out of the car in Reefside, practically holding a gun to his head to get him to take her to Angel Grove with him, to meet the first ever Yellow Ranger.

In spite of herself Trini's starting to like Kira, this skinny little blond full of nervous enthusiasm at the prospect of meeting _the_ original Yellow Ranger. Kira can't believe she hasn't met Trini before. Dustin from Ninja Storm spoke highly of her and Xander mentioned meeting Trini once, says Chip from Mystic Force still hasn't shut up about it. Ronny from Overdrive has met her, too, how come Kira hasn't? It took a team-up with Overdrive and a lot of pleading with her new friend Adam to get to meet Trini face-to-face, even though Kira's so close to Dr. O.

_Dr. O,_ Kira calls him, and the name sounds strange. Adam flinches whenever he hears it but it makes Trini feel better to distance herself from him, even if it's just by using a different name. Kira loves to talk about _Dr. O,_ about how cool it was to work with a veteran Ranger, about how _Dr. O and Hayley_ built a lot of the Rangers' equipment themselves, about how Andrew Hartford says he was friends with Anton Mercer who put Andrew Hartford in touch with _Dr. O_ so that he could learn how to create the perfect Power Ranger team. Kira feels proud to have fought beside _Dr. O._

Trini wonders how it made Tommy feel to fight beside a Yellow Pterodactyl and the thought gives her a sick sense of vindictive glee.

It had to have eaten at him. There are signs at Tommy's discomfort buried in Kira's stories—how he hardly mentioned his Ranger friends, how he didn't tell them he was a Ranger even after the Dino Rangers had taken up the powers themselves, how he spent most of his time in the lab and only ventured out when the others were in serious trouble. She wonders briefly which bothered Tommy most—that Kira reminded him of Kimberly, or that Kira reminded him of Trini.

Trini wants to ask if Kira's met Kimberly, but she can't quite bring herself to do it. That might start a diatribe about how cool Kimberly was, and Trini isn't sure she can take that. Kimberly started this, after all—and ended it, too.

It started the day Kimberly first saw him. _Wasn't he gorgeous? Talented, too. Wonder who he is. Wonder what he's like._ From there it only got worse. Chivalrous and shy, sweet and strong, brave and perfect. Trini had to hear it, every last word, from how romantic he could be to his preferred kissing techniques. Every intimate detail regarding Kimberly's boyfriend was discussed at length with Kimberly's best friend because that's the way the story goes. Trini didn't mind, not really. She just wished she had known the way the story would end. She had never been able to understand what would drive a girl to steal her best friend's boyfriend until she became the best friend of the girl with the perfect boyfriend.

Maybe Kimberly wasn't the only one to blame for Trini's feelings for Tommy. After all, Tommy was the one who had to be so damned perfect, and Trini never made it any easier on herself. She was Tommy's friend, too, always there to comfort him, to give him a female perspective in his pursuit of Kimberly, to comfort him and console him like she did everyone else. Trini never distanced herself from him, because she wasn't going to let her feelings for Tommy trump her loyalty to Kimberly.

Trini had never felt like a traitor for being with Tommy. She never felt like she was betraying Kimberly, because Kimberly and Tommy were over, long since over, friends again and beyond the past. When they told Kimberly, she was happy for them, genuinely and truly happy that the two of them had found each other. In fact, if anything, Kimberly was probably the least shocked of anyone who had heard the news.

It wasn't until the destruction of the Power Chamber and the disappearance of T.J., Carlos, Cassie and Ashley that things had begun to really spiral out of Trini's control. Justin sent out word and they all responded. They stood together on the ruins of the Power Chamber and said their goodbyes and then one by one they went back to their lives, save Tommy, the only one still in Angel Grove at that point, the only one who couldn't let it go. He had been the leader, the one who'd made the decision to leave the power in the hands of rookies, the one who felt responsible for what Divatox had done. It had consumed him as he sifted through the debris, trying to find something, _anything_ left of the power.

And he'd found it. The Dino Gems. Red, Black, Blue and Yellow, but there could be more out there, evidence suggested up to ten, White and Orange and Green and Purple and Crimson and another Blue. He became obsessed with to figuring out how to unlock their power, how to build another team of Rangers in Zordon's name. Of course, to do that, he needed someone with technological knowhow, and with Billy on Aquitar, Trini was the obvious choice. She was a genius in her own right, and unlike Justin she was there at the beginning, got to peer into the workings of the original zords and all sorts of things that Justin had never fully explored.

So Tommy left the racetrack behind and moved to Boston, attending Boston University and rooming with Trini while she worked her way through grad school at MIT. Late nights spent staying awake far longer than anyone but a former superhero could manage, drinking beers and eating cold pizza and blasting music while they invented and tinkered and schemed. An army of minions, just like the bad guys have—no more weakening or distracting the Rangers with things like Putties and Cogs. Power Ranger foot soldiers—hey, maybe even Power Ranger _monsters,_ fully independent creatures that can think for themselves. Think of the possibilities.

It was hard to say when they stopped being friends and started being something more. Maybe they never _were_ friends, just two people waiting for their chance at a relationship, or maybe they just missed the moment the platonic part of their bond turned romantic. Maybe it was the first victorious peck on the lips when they had a breakthrough in their research, or the first time she fell asleep curled up against him on the couch, or the first time she realized she never wanted to be anything but Tommy's. She'd like to think it was then, and not the day he offered to trade his freedom for Hallie's, and not the day he finally broke down and cried about his power loss, and not the day he stood Kimberly up when she'd first asked him to hang out in the Youth Center.

It was Trini who selected Dr. Mercer as the one they should approach to fund their projects. It was Trini who introduced Tommy to Hayley. It was Trini who created the Dino Thunder technology. It was Trini who intended to become the Yellow Dino Ranger.

It was Tommy who turned traitor.

The news hurt worse than anything she had ever experienced. Red and Blue and Yellow, calling themselves the Dino Thunder Power Rangers out in Reefside, California. It had taken a few weeks for the full story to work its way through the channels to Trini—he hadn't mean to give them away. Three kids stumbled into the lab and took them after Tommy told them to go find something prehistoric—something so ironic it could only happen to Tommy.

It doesn't matter how the power made its way to Kira, though, because Tommy was still the one to take it from Trini. How would Kira react, if she knew the truth? How would Tommy react, when Kira confronted him? What would happen if Trini finally let it all out, if she released every secret she had, every secret _Tommy_ had?

_He loved Kimberly and Kimberly made me love him. She left him for me and I wound up with Tommy. I was everything to him and he was everything to me._

_I built the technology you're using. I introduced Hayley to Tommy. When Tommy left me he broke the rules, Zordon's sacred rules, and told Hayley the secret so that she could carry on my work. Tommy's slipup allowed Dr. Mercer to use my work against you. You're using my morpher._

_I told him about Kimberly and he left me. He asked me for the truth, he asked me to be honest. He said he'd never leave me, he said he'd always love me, and he said one day we'd use those gems together, me and him forever. I told him why Kimberly left him and he took my powers and left._

_Forget love and forget the diamond ring he'd been planning to give me. Forget the future we were planning to build. He can have that, have all of it, because in the end there's only one thing I can't bear to lose and he took it. He took my power. He took my inventions, my zords and my weapons, he took it from me and he gave it away. Tommy, the one who knows better than anyone what it feels like to lose the power, took mine away from me._

In the end, however, she can't bring herself to do it. She can't make poor Adam's night any worse. She can't run the risk of Kimberly ever finding out that Kimberly inadvertently built Trini's relationship with Tommy and caused it to implode. She can't find it in herself to tarnish Kira's respect for Tommy, either, because Kira doesn't deserve that, doesn't deserve to have her illusions shattered. Kira shouldn't have to face the truth.

Tommy is a traitor.


End file.
